Saturday, February 03, 2007

Little Mosque, Better Fare

Okay, so I'm glad to be eating most of my words.

Episodes two and three of Little Mosque on the Prairie have now aired and gosh if they weren't pretty funny.

The pro-am acting has largely been dialled back and a few of the actors really shine - Sitara Hewitt springs to mind, who is not only funny and real as an actor, but gorgeous as well.Additionally the bad word play has practically disappeared. (Allah, be praised!)The characters are developing nicely. Still a bit surface in some cases, but hey, it's only been three episodes! The range of characters is quite pleasing. Varying levels of devotion to Islam - even within single families - and plenty of universal virtues and foibles.

Yeah, I still with it were a bit edgier, but I think I'm going to have to relent on that matter. Edgier would appeal to a narrower audience - quite possibly even the Muslim audience that likely make up the shows core viewers - and would probably be the kiss of death to a show which is already pushing the boundaries of viewer expectations.

5 comments:

Tom
said...

"Little Mosque" depends of offensive stereotypes for its humour.

Also, while at times funny, I do wonder about how "real" the situation is. I once saw a show about how the Nazis made two propaganda films about the conflict between the British and the Irish. The films, at least according to those who were interviewed who had seen them were quite good. The only problem was that the people in the movies were not Irish. What I mean by that was that the culture of the Irish portrayed in the films in no way reflected actual Irish culture as I guess the Germans who wrote, produced, and acted in the movies never took the time to get to understand the traditions and feel of the Irish people. It just wasn't important to them because in the end it had nothing to do with the Irish. It was as one commentator of the movies said "Germans talking to Germans".

And that is kind of what I am getting with the "Little Mosque" show. In the end it isn't really about small town Saskatchewan or Muslim communities living within small town Saskatchewan. In the end what it comes down to is just Liberal Urbanite Canadians talking to Liberal Urbanite Canadians, with their political message being far more important to them than whether or not the situation portrayed reflects a real situation in the country accurately enough.

By the way, why does "The She Mayor" remind me so much of the mayor on South Park?

The comment regarding September 11th in the third episode was extremely offensive.

To compare an electrical fire (caused by a member of the mosque albeit accidentally) where no one was even injuried and the damage to the mosque amounted to a few rugs and other minor property to an act that caused the deaths of 2996 people was beyond the pale.

Can you imagine having to make the decision between either jumping to your death or being burned alive? Yet by that comment the show tries to trivalize this. That the CBC would allow that comment shows it to be lacking of any decency and conscience.

It is even more concerning when you realize that the vast majority of the people in the Muslim world and even one third of Westerners believe that September 11th was caused by the Americans and/or the Israelis. Was that the idea that was trying to be promoted? Just like that Muslim was blaming the infidels in the town for the fire that was really caused by another member of the mosque, the Muslims are being blamed for something that was caused by members of the West and therefore the electrical fire was indeed their September 11th.

I am quite offended that the CBC would go into encouraging that kind of thinking.

But back to the issue(s) at hand... sort of. I'll address them later if I decide I have something valuable to say one way or the other, beyond: "I am a bit surprised at both comments. And I'm actually thinking more about why I've got 'comment moderation' activated seeing as I could easily skirt the entire issue by rejecting both comments... though that's not really my style - freedom of speech, good; censorship, bad... which upon reflection is probably a good start for considering my position on the comments.

In any case, thanks for the thoughts gents. I'm just glad there's evidence that my blog is being read. So self-centered, this one. It's a shame, with a little humility he might have made something of himself.

He is right to be concerned when a foreign element comes into his community and tries to take over.

Look at what happened in Antelope, Oregon, USA during the 1980s.

Yeah, first it was all about tolerance and diversity and all of that. But pretty soon they took over, changed the name of the town and most of the original inhabitants were forced out.

Fred Tupper knows that Mercistad is a real possibility (or is it Merciabad). Especially with She Mayor in the the corner of the Muslims with the hope that she can count on them as a solid voting block for her. In the end though, when the Muslims do gain overwhelming numbers in the community, she might just find herself pushed aside as they are going to want one of their own as mayor. But then again, when it reaches that point She Mayor would probably convert to Islam though I believe the Muslims would see her conversion to Islam for what it is - a lame political ploy.